1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner including an air conditioner body and a remote controller that controls the operation thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 01-119197 discloses a remote control system capable of performing bidirectional communication between a remote-controller (hereinafter, “RC”) transmitter and a RC receiver, in which the RC transmitter limits a reception standby state causing power consumption to a certain period of time right after transmission, to suppress battery consumption of the RC transmitter.
However, in the conventional example, although it is based on the assumption that an operator operates the RC transmitter for transmission, it is necessary to periodically exchange information in order to manage operation information or the like in the case of the air conditioner. Therefore, there arises a problem that the exchange of the operation information or the like cannot be sufficiently performed by merely allowing the bidirectional communication in the certain time only when the operator performs the operation from the RC transmitter.
In addition, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-278696 discloses an air conditioner for performing bidirectional communication between an air conditioner (hereinafter, “AC”) body and an RC that controls the AC body. This type of conventional technology includes one in which when an operation stop command is sent from the RC to the AC body, the AC body stops the operation and transmits information such as the operation time and power consumption (electricity expenses) to the RC, so that the information is notified to a user.
In the AC during a cooling operation, dew drops are easily formed on a heat exchanger due to a difference between a room temperature and a temperature of the heat exchanger. Therefore, if the operation is stopped in this state, an internal humidity of an indoor unit becomes high, which causes mold and bad odor. Therefore, some of recent ACs automatically perform a drying operation in order to dry the dew drops formed on the heat exchanger or the like after the cooling operation is stopped.
A filter is provided in the indoor unit of the ACs so that dirt and dust in the air do not enter an air-intake, and some of the ACs have a function of automatically cleaning the filter when the operation is stopped after the operation time reaches a predetermined integrated operation time.
In this manner, the conventional air conditioner automatically starts a maintenance operation (drying operation and filter cleaning) separately from its stop operation performed by the user when the AC satisfies predetermined conditions, and thus only the operation time and the power consumption (electricity expenses) when an operator performs the stop operation are displayed. Therefore, there remains a problem that the time and power consumption required for the maintenance operation and the power consumption required for the air-conditioning operation and the maintenance operation are not correctly notified to the user because the operation time and the power consumption required for the maintenance operation are not displayed and the operation time and the power consumption obtained by integrating the air-conditioning operation and the maintenance operation are not also displayed.
Furthermore, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-61005 discloses an air conditioner in which a RC can control a direction of an air flow direction adjustment plate (louver) provided in an air outlet of an AC body. This type of air conditioner controls a position of the louver by sending a control signal from the RC to the AC body. Therefore, the direction of the louver displayed on the RC indicates a direction specified by the RC.
However, the AC capable of cooling operation and heating operation has a different movable range of an up/down air flow direction adjustment flap (up/down louver) between during the cooling operation (mainly horizontal direction) and during the heating operation (mainly downward direction). Therefore, if the AC is operated in automatic operation mode, the direction (air flow position) of the up/down louver is automatically changed each time the operation is switched to the heating operation or to the cooling operation according to the room temperature.
Moreover, in an AC with a dew-drop control operation function for preventing dew drops during cooling operation, the direction of a louver is sometimes automatically changed to an air flow position for dew-drop control even if the direction of the louver is specified. Thus, there remains a problem that, in the automatic operation mode or the dew-drop control operation, the direction of the louver initially set by the RC and displayed thereon is different from an actual direction of the louver of the AC, so that the operator cannot recognize the direction of the louver of the AC body at the time of changing the air flow.